Escaping the Lost Island (working title)

Chapter 10

My thoughts mercifully turned away from my ordeal with Toby throughout dinner. It wasn't until I was getting ready to go to bed that I remembered that I still needed to talk to him.

I found him coming out of the hut on the guys' side of camp.

"Um, hey," I began awkwardly for the second time that day. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"

He stretched and nodded. "Sure."

I automatically started walking towards the beach and he followed. The gentle breeze was deafening in our silence and I felt my palms beginning to sweat.

What was I thinking? I still had no idea what I was going to say to him. "So hey, I don't think we should be together." What if he had no intention of getting back together? What if I had misread everything and so had everyone else? "What if I'm just crazy," I thought grimly.

I felt sand beneath my bare feet and I saw the beach stretched before me. The moon was almost full, but not quite. It poured moon beams into the ocean and they stretched towards me in a path that reached for the shore. I longed to walk it. To step onto the yellow brick road on the water and let it lead me home, or at least off the island. Away from my problems, specifically the one at hand.

A palm leaf swished behind me, confirming Toby's arrival.

I squared my shoulders before turning to face him. "So-" I began feebly.

"So," he repeated.

"I think we both know why we're here," I tried again, inwardly cringing at myself.

A pause. "Not really, but I'm assuming this has something to do with you...talking to yourself today," he said finally.

My heartbeat quickened. This was the last thing I wanted to be doing right now. I hate HATE emotional confrontation, especially like this where one of the people involved has no idea what is going on and everything is incredibly awkward.

But I couldn't back out now. I had to just get it out. "We can't be together," I blurted.

He tilted his head. "Sorry... what?"

"Please don't act like I'm being crazy," I said in a rush. "I know you know what I mean. Yes, we had something a few months ago and I know that, but we can't get be together now, there's just... so much going on and everything's changing. So if you had any sort of hopes that that might happen, I'm sorry, but it's not going to."

There. I had finally done it. But instead of feeling relieved, I felt a growing sense of dread as he continued to look perplexed.

"Uh yeah, okay," he said at last.

I waited.

"Is that it?" he asked.

"Well, yeah," I said slowly. Was that really all he had to say? I had just laid it out there and all he could say was "Uh, yeah okay"?

"Cool." He started to turn back.

"Wait," I called. "So...are we cool then?"

He shrugged. "I mean, yeah. What do you want me to say?"

"I dunno I just thought that you might have..." I trailed off.

He gave a faint smile. "You told me we can't be together, I said okay. Is there a problem?"

He had me there. "Nope," I said. "No problem. I'm just glad we're on the same page then."

"Me too." He disappeared into the ferns without another word, leaving me feeling like a complete and total idiot for the second time that day.